Jane’s boots crunched against the gravel path as she made her way down to the docks the next morning. She had a metal flask tucked under her arm, the same stimulant drink that had become part of her morning routine. She felt strongly that she would need more than one cup before the morning was through.

  She spotted her aunt before Cecelia noticed her. The older woman was crouched near the water's edge, one hand pressed flat against the stone dock, her head tilted like she was listening for something. Even from a distance, Jane could see the tension in her aunt’s shoulders. Whatever Cecelia was sensing, she didn’t seem to like it much.

  "Aunt Cecelia?"

  Cecelia straightened and turned. There was a weariness in her expression that she couldn’t quite hide. "Right on time. Good."

  "Have you been out here long?"

  "A while." Cecelia brushed dust from her hands and walked towards Jane. "I wanted to get a proper sense of things before we started making plans. The rock here is more complex than I expected."

  Jane poured out two cups of the dark liquid. The sharp smell of it was comfortingly familiar by now. She handed one cup to her aunt and took a sip from her own.

  "Complex how?"

  “Mostly, they just aren’t level. There are the normal inconsistencies in the material, but they shouldn’t matter much if we can fix the leveling issue.”

  Jane crouched down and placed her hand against the stone, letting a small pulse of awareness flow through it. Her aunt was right. The magic moved through some sections easily, then hit resistance where one type of stone met another in not-quite-perfect ways.

  "That's going to make things difficult," Jane said.

  "But manageable. It’s not our real problem, though." Cecelia sat down on the edge of the dock, her legs dangling over the water. "I hate to say it, but I think we're going to need to etch the circles rather than chalk them."

  Jane felt her face scrunch up in annoyance before the more mature part of herself could stop it. She sat down beside her aunt, staring at the stone with petulant dismay.

  "Etching?"

  "I know."

  "That's going to take forever.”

  "I know that too.”

  Jane took another long drink from her cup. Etching wasn't fundamentally different from chalk in terms of magical function. A circle was a circle. A pattern was a pattern. It was the shape that mattered, not the medium used to create it.

  But chalk was forgiving. It could sketch out a preliminary design, make adjustments, erase mistakes, and refine the curves until everything was perfect.

  Etching was permanent. Every line had to be correct the first time, and it took much, much longer to make each line in the first place. It was a massive pain, one that Jane had managed to avoid doing for most of her life. She hated to break her own streak.

  "There has to be another way,” she said. "What if we just reinforced the chalk? Made it thicker, or layered it. Something like that."

  "That works until someone steps too hard, or drops a water flask, or any number of things. With Allen’s machine, there is going to be a lot of activity on this dock.” Cecelia pointed toward the lake, where small waves were already lapping against the dock. "And you are going to be out there. Underwater, far away from where I can help you, and surrounded by poisonous magical aura. I am not going to risk anything here, Jane. Neither are you. Do I need to command it?”

  Jane knew her aunt was right, but that didn't make it easier to accept. She had been hoping for a quick setup that they could complete in a single morning. Now they were looking at days of not only work, but the most miserable kind of magical work she could imagine.

  "How complex does the pattern need to be?" she asked. "Could we simplify it? Just the essential components?"

  "That's what I've been thinking about all morning." Cecelia pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket and spread it across her knees. Jane recognized the design as her aunt’s original work. There was a kind of precision to it that no one else could match. "I've stripped it down as far as I can. This is the absolute minimum for what we need to accomplish."

  Jane studied the design. It was elegant in its efficiency. Not a single penstroke was wasted. But even simplified, the pattern was complex. There were three big concentric circles, each marked with specific shapes and lines at mathematically determined points on the arc.

  "What's your estimate?” she asked. “For how long this will take?”

  “Two days to etch, if we both work on it. Maybe three if we want to be very careful, or if we make any mistakes we have to fix.” Cecelia studied Jane’s face. "I know it's not what you wanted to hear."

  Jane finished her drink and set the cup down beside her. "It's not. But if that's what it takes, that's what it takes. When do we start?"

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “After we agree on the design.” Cecelia smoothed the paper flat on the stone between them. "I want you to check my work. You have a good eye for this kind of thing, and two perspectives are better than one.”

  They bent over the diagram together, Jane's finger tracing the lines as she worked through the logic of each component.

  "Wait.” She tapped the innermost ring. "Why is this offset? Shouldn't it be perfectly centered?"

  “It's deliberate. The offset compensates for a few things. You see…"

  Cecelia explained her logic. It was sound, but it wasn’t the only way to do it. More specifically, it wasn’t the way Jane would do it.

  What if….

  "That makes sense." Jane peered closely at the angles. "But if we're accounting for the current, shouldn't this alignment point shift as well? To maintain the same relationship?"

  Cecelia’s eyebrows rose. “You think?”

  The negotiations kicked off in earnest. Cecelia had been right that care was called for. They both needed to consider every possible alternative to find the truly optimized final product.

  Jane was honestly surprised by how many minor differences in technique she discovered, and even more shocked that many represented a possible improvement. When they weren't improvements, they were a chance for her to learn from a superior mage. She found herself enjoying that opportunity as much as the process itself.

  It was rare for Jane to have someone to check her calculations against, someone who could spot her mistakes and appreciate her insights in equal measure. At the academy, she had always been the most advanced student in any given class. Here, she was working with someone whose understanding matched and often exceeded her own.

  Cecelia pulled out a pencil and made a small adjustment to one of the symbols. Jane continued her examination, checking each intersection and curve and mathematical relationship. Once she caught what might have been an error, though after discussion, they decided it was actually correct and Jane had been reading the notation wrong.

  Her aunt was quiet for a moment after that, working through the implications of their much-changed diagram. "This could work.”

  “I hope so. Let’s keep it up.”

  The debate continued for another hour. Eventually, the metal flask ran dry. Jane poured out the last few drops and shook it, disappointed.

  "That's all of it," she said.

  "Probably for the best. I was starting to feel jittery." Cecelia stood and stretched, joints popping audibly. "All right. I think we've got the design as good as we can get it without actually testing it. Time to start the real work."

  Jane looked at the flagstones, then at the diagram, then back at the flagstones. The thought of spending the next two or three days crouched over stone, carefully etching line after line, made her want to groan. But there was nothing for it. At least she was in better shape now than when she’d had to do this kind of activity as part of her schooling.

  "All right.” Jane joined her aunt in standing and stretching. "What do you need from me?"

  "Just stay clear and keep an eye on things. I’m going to start my work on the stone. If I ever look like I'm overextending, stop me."

  Cecelia moved to a clear space near the center of the dock and pulled out a piece of chalk. The temporary circle she drew was quick and simple, the kind of thing either of them could have thrown together in a few minutes.

  Jane felt the magic gather before she saw any visible effect. The force swirled thick around her aunt’s hand, characteristic of the massive power the woman could wield. Then Cecelia rapped on the stone, sharp and clear, and the power released.

  The flagstones shifted. It was nothing that would alarm a casual observer, but Jane could see the subtle changes. Stones that had been slightly uneven were now perfectly level. Gaps between sections closed. The entire stone landing in front of the dock seemed to settle, becoming more solid and unified.

  It took perhaps five minutes from start to finish. When it was done, Cecelia stepped out of the circle and immediately sat down.

  "That," she said between breaths, "was more work than I expected."

  Jane hurried over with the empty flask, wishing she had thought to bring water as well. "Are you all right?"

  "I'm fine. Just tired." Despite the cool morning air, Cecelia wiped sweat from her forehead. "The stone was more resistant than I anticipated. It’s been here a while. No harm done, though. We won’t need much magic today outside of that one expenditure."

  "Maybe we should let you recover before we start the etching."

  Cecelia shook her head firmly. "No. Like I said, I won't need magic for the etching. We should start now, while the light is still good."

  Jane knew better than to argue when Cecelia used that particular tone. Instead, she helped her aunt to her feet and guided her to sit on the edge of the dock again.

  "Rest for a bit," Jane told her. "Then we'll start."

  Cecelia allowed herself only five minutes before she pulled out her etching kit. It was a leather case filled with delicate implements, each one precisely crafted for a specific purpose. Jane had a good idea of the price something like that would fetch. The thought of buying such a kit for an emergency like this made her almost whistle at the expense.

  “How did you pay for these? How much does an archmage even make?”

  Her aunt laughed. “Heavens, you never asked? We don’t make a dime. Or we make all the money, depending on how you think about it. An archmage draws directly from the royal treasury for their needs. If there’s a limit to how much we can spend, I’ve certainly never hit it.”

  For one brief moment, Jane wondered if the baker’s life was really the life for her. Then she contemplated how much money she actually needed, found it was a remarkably small amount, and put the idea away.

  Cecelia selected one of the fine-tipped styluses. "We'll work from the outside in. The outer circle first, then the middle, then the inner parts. That way, if either of us makes a mistake early on, we won't have destroyed the entire pattern."

  Jane picked up a matching tool, feeling the weight of it and making sure she had a good sense of the grip. "Which section do you want?"

  "I'll take the eastern half. You take the west."

  They got down on their hands and knees. Jane positioned herself carefully, consulting the diagram one more time to make absolutely sure she understood the curve she needed to etch. Then, with a tiny pulse of magic channeled through the stylus, she began to carve.

  The tool bit into the stone with a grinding sound, marking its way through each shape with agonizing slowness. Jane had to maintain constant pressure while also keeping her hand perfectly steady, following the curve with absolute precision. There was no room for error. Every shape had to be an exact, scaled-up version of what she and Cecelia had drawn on the paper.

  After ten minutes, her hand started to cramp. After twenty, her knees were aching from the hard stone. After thirty, sweat was dripping into her eyes in rivers, burning her eyeballs no matter how much she wiped it away.

  "This is miserable."

  "It’s the worst," Cecelia agreed from her side of the pattern. "But also necessary."

  Jane wiped her forehead yet again with the back of her free hand, careful not to disturb her working hand's position. The outer circle was enormous, easily ten feet in diameter. At her current pace, completing just her half of it was going to take hours.

  One line at a time. Just focus on the next inch. Then the inch after that. That’s all you can do, Jane.

  She had heard it said that an ant could build a mountain, given enough time.

  Jane sincerely hoped this was true.

  .

  !